Lindsay Ell on the guitar renaissance, touring with Shania Twain, and her comforting new EP
“I think I was putting all of my priority on the things that I would achieve, compared to being like, ‘all right, I love myself as I am, as I show up in this world,’” says Lindsay Ell, her lilac hair illuminated against the dark walls of her studio. The past five years have been tough for the country-pop creative, and that’s just scratching the surface.
Among busy work schedules and personal battles, Ell realised she wasn’t being kind to herself. In 2023, she was diagnosed with an eating disorder – a curveball she did not see coming – and has since been on one hell of a healing ride. To get stronger she needed to soften first, which she did on her new EP, Love Myself.
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“It’s one of my favourite things ever to get messages from fans like, ‘thank you for writing this music, thank you for releasing these songs. You’ve inspired me to go talk to a family member or talk to a friend, go get therapy,’” she says, wide-eyed and smiling. “I’ve just really tried to look at the girl staring back at me in the mirror and be able to accept her for everything that she is.”
Across five tracks, the EP delves into the lessons we learn from doing things The Hard Way, and how priding ourselves on being tough as nails can actually be detrimental to our mental health, as unpicked in Pain Tolerance. Ell bares all the confusing and ugly and sensitive parts of her inner self throughout, and even appears on the cover with arms wide open, almost as if she’s declaring ‘this is me, and you should take me exactly as you find.’
Image: Hannah Gray Hall
Produced by Doug Schadt (Maggie Rogers, Ashe), the making of the EP allowed her to experiment with music like a “playground”. Though on the road she commonly uses a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, the studio is a place where analogue anarchy takes place: “There are so many guitars on this project that don’t sound like you think a guitar should sound,” she says, explaining how the pair would “plug anything into anything” to just see what would happen.
Though she firmly remains a “Strat girl”, she even dabbled with a few new axes too. “If I were to show you my studio, it’s covered in Strats. There are mainly Strats all over the record, [though] I for sure leaned into a few other things… I used a 335, I used a Les Paul on a song, I used an SG… We were just in our sandbox, pretty much.”
Through ‘Ell And Back
Ell, who grew up in Calgary, Canada, began working as a guitarist at just 10 years old. By her late teens, she was touring with Buddy Guy. Not many musicians can say they’ve worked in the music industry – notorious for its harshness, its gruelling hours, and insecure work – for this long. Even fewer can state they’ve toured with a blues great. Now 35, she’s come to find that by revelling in self-acceptance, she’s a much more comfortable performer.
“[Now], I can play things that connect me to joy, compared to me reaching to be accepted as a female guitar player. I think I felt that ever since I started playing shows. I remember walking into venues holding my guitar case, wearing a pink shirt, and I would see people be like, ‘oh, my God’,” she says, mimicking an eye roll. “I [was] like, ‘I will prove to you that I am different than that’, you know? Different from what they think a ‘girl guitar player’ is.
“Thankfully, there are a lot of female musicians on the scene right now who are really really turning the tides,” she adds. “Now, you’re seeing more women front bands and play instruments. It’s such an exciting time. I hope that it’s inspiring the younger generation to want to play guitar and think guitar is cool again. I’m really proud to be a part of that moment.”
Absolutely – from Nita Strauss to Sophie Lloyd, to Nova Twins and even Taylor Swift – women are rightfully taking up space in our community. But there’s one guitarist in particular who really inspired Ell growing up, a certain someone with the prerogative to have a little fun, one might say…
Image: Hannah Gray Hall
That (Does) Impress Me Much…
You may have spotted Ell playing alongside Shania Twain this past year throughout her Las Vegas Come On Over residency shows, and notably in the UK for her Legend slot at this year’s Glastonbury Festival (which Ell describes as one of “the most special festivals” she has ever played).
“I never saw sidemanning being a part of my job. When she asked me at the beginning of the year if I would come be her lead guitar player, I just was like, ‘um, how can I say no to Shania?’ But what an exciting adventure!” Ell says with glee. “It’s been so wild playing the songs that I learned to sing and play on guitar when I was really little, now standing on stage three feet away from her.”
Though Twain – one of the best selling music artists of all time and a five-time Grammy winner – was perhaps overdue a Legend slot at the fest in the first place, it was rather cool to see country-leaning pop music centre stage at the biggest festival in the UK. Country is back in the mainstream, baby. Hell, even Beyoncé has released a country record. “[We’re] seeing all of these artists and all of these bands that still use real instruments and everybody’s loving them,” beams Ell. “I will, till the day I die, try to make guitar solos cool again – and I think they are becoming cool again!”
Despite the sceptics out there, Ell also sees how optimistic and gleaming the future of our instrument is completely first hand through her other job hosting Canada’s Got Talent: “It’s been so exciting to see so many incredible guitarists on that show,” she says. “I’m tough to impress as a guitar player, as any musician should be when you know what it takes to make it in this industry. [But] I’ve been so floored by [the talent]. It’s been really cool to see even young kids practising all the time and becoming incredible musicians.”
Young people picking up the guitar is also widespread across our online world too, and as Ell acknowledges, it’s an “asset” for allowing up and coming musicians to find a platform: “The onus is really in anyone’s hands if they want it badly enough,” she says matter of factly. “I think we’re seeing this incredible [surge] of all different kinds of new guitar players, of all ages, different genders, different locations.”
Just Getting Started
By being visible, by turning up to every gig as herself, Lindsay Ell is also showing young musicians how versatile and exciting life can be as a guitarist – perhaps without her even realising it. You can do it solo, you can join a band, you can play for others, you can do it online. It will be there for you at your highs, and there as a tool for your lows – Love Myself shows us exactly that.
And it’s just an introduction point to much more. She’s already in the midst of planning new tours for 2025, and there’s a “bunch of new music” in the works, perhaps even something of full length. As for now, these five tracks unravel what it means to be a woman in the guitarsphere today. By giving herself permission to show her vulnerabilities, Ell’s challenged the tough and toxic stereotypes that exist in our community.
“When we are soft and when we are vulnerable, it helps us connect to each other as human beings, and it also helps us connect to ourselves,” Ell says. “I hope when people listen to Love Myself, that they can really start to take a look at the way they look at themselves and, and ask the question, ‘are there any areas of my life where I could be more loving in the way I treat myself or the way I talk to myself?’ I think that it happens in little tweaks. It’s an everyday thing of learning and relearning.”
The guitar is a badass instrument (duh), but it can also bring out romance, softness, and soul. Did we forget that?
Love Myself is out now
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
